Kendra Stanley-Mills | Muskegon ChronicleNorton Shores resident Gloria White Gardner was among a crowd of about 50 during a "call to action" by members of the Michigan Nurses Association Thursday.

A crowd of about 50 people gathered at the corner of Morris and Second streets in downtown Muskegon Thursday for a "call to action" by members of the Michigan Nurses Association who, according to a press release, "demand that members of Congress put our state's working men and women ahead of the greedy corporations that ruined our economy."

Norton Shores resident Gloria White Gardner, a consultant with HERCO, a women-owned construction company, said she and HERCO are very interested in health. "A lot of our men and women in our program don't have health care, " she said. "People can't be employed if they don't have good health. It's important to us to have a healthy work force."

Fifty box lunches and cups of soup were served by nurses and volunteers at noon underneath a white tent set up not far from the downtown Muskegon office of U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland.

The nurses came together with a hope "that our federal legislators tax Wall Street to fund programs that will create good-paying jobs and rebuild our communities," the group's press release said.

Kendra Stanley-Mills | Muskegon ChronicleFormer State Representative Mary Valentine, a Democrat from Norton Shores, talks to a crowd of about 50 Thursday afternoon.

Former State Representative Mary Valentine, a Democrat from Norton Shores, was one of the speakers at Thursday's event.